Still, while Sauschuck maintains that PPD is a "highly trained professional law enforcement agency," he uses incidents like the one involving Hamann to reinforce that training. Following the receipt of Hamann's email and video clip, Sauschuck says he directed an attorney to draft some refresher notes for the police force about open carrying, an issue he calls "seasonal in nature" (perhaps just because people with concealed-weapon permits have fewer clothes under which to hide their weapons).

These days, Hamann does have a concealed-weapon permit. Why does he still choose to carry openly? Just to antagonize, or to make a point?

No, he says. First of all, openly carrying his gun deters potential criminals, he says. It's also more comfortable and allows him to carry "a bigger gun with more firepower" than he could if he had to hide a weapon under his clothes. It's safer, he adds — there's less chance of an accidental misfire when drawing from a hip holster strapped outside your clothes, as compared with one you have to maneuver into and out of a concealed holster of some sort.

And, of course, it's his right. "My purpose isn't to get stopped by the police," he says. Nor is it to get entangled in a lawsuit. "I'm not a litigious person — I want to get the problem fixed," he says, referring to what he perceives as a lack of education among law enforcement officers. "But I'm getting to the point where I think the only way to get the problem fixed may be to sue," which would draw more attention to his cause and possibly prevent further violations of open-carriers' rights.

ALL THE WORLD'S A STAGE | July 24, 2014 When three theater companies, all within a one-hour drive of Portland, choose to present the same Shakespeare play on overlapping dates, you have to wonder what about that particular show resonates with this particular moment.

CHECKING IN: THE NEW GUARD AND THE WRITER'S HOTEL | July 11, 2014 Former Mainer Shanna McNair started The New Guard, an independent, multi-genre literary review, in order to exalt the writer, no matter if that writer was well-established or just starting out.

NO TAR SANDS | July 10, 2014 “People’s feelings are clear...they don’t want to be known as the tar sands capitol of the United States."